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Outages haunt public in Hyderabad

Many areas suffer 12-hour supply cuts, sales of ACs plunge 20 percent
Hyderabad: Frequent unannounced power cuts in the city have become a big headache for the public leaving them with no clear-cut timings for planning the use of costly appliances.
Many areas in the city are suffering up to 12 hours of power cuts with hardly one to three hours of supply during the day, and that too in bits and pieces. Meanwhile, officials say that ‘emergency cuts’ are imposed when there are sudden spikes, and no prior intimation can be given about that.
With power cuts having increased substantially over the last two weeks, the situation is such that citizens are hardly able to keep tabs on power timings. “Our area used to have power cuts from 6 am to 7.30 am and from 12 am to 1.30 pm. Now not only has the duration of scheduled cuts increased to two hours at a time, but there are one to three hour cuts several times in between. This results in constant power supply for hardly one or two hours in a day. It’s impossible for children to study or even finish household chores,” said Shipra Rani, a resident of Gachibowli.
The situation is similar in almost all parts of the city. In the IT corridor it is even worse with officials resorting to cuts during the night due to sudden load increase. Although the use of airconditioners is being blamed for the frequent disruptions, as per data from the TSSPDCL the sale of air-conditioners is not as impressive this year due to power cuts. Officials keep blaming airconditioners for power cuts especially in upmarket areas. “The use of air-conditioners makes the load spike suddenly after working hours, and emergency cuts have to be imposed to prevent grid failure. Moreover, these cuts emergency measures, and we do not know in advance about that,” said an engineer from the IT corridor.
People not only are having difficulty adjusting their lives to the erratic power cuts but their frequency has brought down the sale of air-conditioners this year by 20 per cent compared to last year, as per data from the central discom (TSSPDCL). Meanwhile, water supply, the operations of hospitals and commercial establishments remain badly hit.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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